This type of track control is disclosed, for example, in Patent Literature 1. A driving support apparatus for a vehicle which is disclosed in the Patent Literature 1 is configured to make the vehicle, which is provided with a steering torque assisting device and a steering angle varying device, follow a target driving route by using the steering torque assisting device and to suppress a change in vehicle behavior which occurs at the time of the following by using the steering angle varying device.
On the other hand, even in a period of performing this type of track control, a steering operation based on a driver's intention, so-called overriding, occurs irregularly on various scales. A change in steering angle which is caused by the overriding frequently interferes with a change in steering angle in the track control. Therefore, highly accurate detection of the overriding is desired in the vehicle in which this type of track control is performed. In this regard, a conventional apparatus including the apparatus disclosed in the Patent Literature 1 is configured to determine the presence or absence of the overriding on the basis of the magnitude of various steering inputs, such as a steering wheel angle, a steering wheel angular velocity, a steering torque, controlled variables corresponding thereto and the like.
Incidentally, as a technology for preventing the interference between driver steering and steering by an actuator, there is also proposed an apparatus which is configured to use a front-wheel steering device to control a low frequency component of a target yaw rate and to use a rear-wheel steering device to control a high frequency component corresponding to disturbance (e.g. refer to Patent Literature 2).
Moreover, Patent Literature 3 discloses a technology in which low-pass filtering is performed on a signal corresponding to the steering angle and a technology in which a dead zone is prepared for the steering wheel angle.
Moreover, Patent Literature 4 discloses a technology for changing characteristics of steering force, such as the dead zone, on the basis of a driver's private unique information.